Grains-of-Paradise Ice Cream

[nacht_musik]

I am a total fiend for ginger and cardamom. Therefore, I am beta-testing homebrew recipes for grains-of-paradise ice cream, as this little-known West African spice tastes something like ginger, cardamom, and black pepper, with notes of citrus and other esters thrown in for good measure.

Current winner, which has too much sugar and vanilla and maybe not quite enough grains of paradise (there will be more experiments later this week), is a scaled-down test batch with these proportions: 2c heavy cream, 2c half-and-half, 3/4c sugar, 4t vanilla, and 5 firmly packed teaspoons of freshly-ground grains of paradise.

Suggestions welcome. I think my next batch is going to be closer to 2-3t vanilla, and 1/2c sugar. =)